RTC Votes No On Vehicle Registration Tax Measure

Santa Cruz County vehicle owners will be spared the possibility of having to pay a yearly $10 registration fee after the Regional Transportation Commission voted on Thursday not to move forward with putting a measure on the November ballot asking for the tax.

The fee would have generated approximately $2.2 million a year countywide and been given to cities based on population, with each jurisdiction receiving a minimum of $115,000 annually. The money would have been used strictly for funding local road repairs, safety projects near schools and sidewalk access for people with disabilities.

RTC staff told the commission that currently it costs approximately $30 million a year to maintain and repair roads in the county yet only $13.5 million in funds is available each year. Additionally, RTC staff said that there is an over $300 million backlog in the county for repairing road, streets, gutters and other infrastructure.

Though the RTC feels that there is a great need for the money, Executive Director George Dondero recommended that the commission hold off on the measure at this time. Dondero said that after polling likely voters in March, the RTC learned that around 65 percent would approve the measure. Because a two-thirds approval is needed and the poll has a 4.9 percent margin of error that could go either way, Dondero said he felt that it wasn’t enough and that there won’t be enough time between now and November to do the necessary outreach to get a higher approval vote.

However, Dondero said that there is a strong need for infrastructure improvements in the county and that local streets and roads definitely need more maintenance.

“We haven’t found many people that will dispute those points,” he said. “There is a strong recognition that if we do nothing, the conditions will worsen and the costs will continue to go up.”

The vote was a close one, with commissioners voting 6-5 to hold off on the measure. Several of those in support of the measure said they felt their constituents saw the need and would support it.

Commissioner and County Supervisor Neal Coonerty was in support of the measure saying that it is a small amount of money and very understandable and clean cut.

“I think the downside is relatively minor and the need is great out there, so I think we ought to try and put it on the ballot and let the voters decide,” Coonerty said. “We put a lot of preparation into this and I think we ought to give it a chance.”

Other commissioners though cited the low approval number of the poll and the cost of an election—between $150-$220 thousand—that they are not sure they can win as reasons to vote against the measure.

“We might be going forward with something that is going to find a tipping point somewhere between now and November. Something really good could happen that could tip it one way, or something very bad could happen that could tip it the other way, but at the very best we are going into this proposition fifty/fifty to raise a small measure of money that is not going to solve the problems,” said Commission Chairman and Capitola City Council member Kirby Nicol. “I question if there is even enough money in this if it passes to stop the bleeding. I think we are going to have to find some other mechanism to raise bigger dollars than what is the potential before us today.”

Santa Cruz businessman and Executive Director of the Santa Cruz County Business Council Gary Merrill told the commission that his organization is very interested in traffic and road issues and they would support the measure.

“We have in the business community a perception of fix it now at this cost, or fix it later at a much greater cost,” he said.